Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/463

Rh time when the cotton is ready to pluck, a great deal of cruelty is practised on the plantations around here. There are plantations here where the whip never rests during all these months. You can have no idea of such flogging.”

I will not repeat those scenes which the planter related to me, scenes which he himself had witnessed of violence, cruelty and suffering, during more than fourteen years; abominations which finally drove him thence, which drove him to sell his plantation, and leave the Slave States for ever. I will merely introduce some of this excellent man's words.

“I have known men and women who were actual devils towards their slaves; whose pleasure it was to torment them.

“People can flog a negro almost to death, and yet not let a drop of blood flow. The strip of cow-hide which is used in-doors, can cause the most horrible torture without any mark being left.

“Women are not unfrequently the most horrible tormentors of the house-slaves; and I would rather be one of the field-hands than the house-slave of a passionate woman. The institution of slavery seems to change the very nature of woman.

“Slavery is destructive of the white. I have known young men and women, amiable in all respects, of the most attractive manners and dispositions, but towards their slaves they were unjust and severe.

“There are naturally exceptions. There are good and tender masters and mistresses, but these are few. The rule is, that slavery blinds and hardens the mind of the slave-owner from childhood upwards.

“The state of things is considerably improved of late